Calif. immersion program seeks to preserve Hmong culture

Susan B. Anthony Elementary School in Sacramento, Calif., recently started one of only two Hmong immersion programs in the U.S. Dual immersion programs in languages such as Spanish and Mandarin are much more common than Hmong, but Sacramento is home to a large Hmong community. "The idea of the Hmong immersion program is so students will become bicultural and biliterate in both English and Hmong," said Lee Yang, the school's principal and a former director of Sacramento City Unified School District's Multilingual Literacy Department.